5.  The applicant, a Kurd and Sunni Muslim, was born in 1988 and is currently in Sweden.
6.  On 16 October 2007 he applied to the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) for asylum. He submitted that he had lived in Kirkuk in the Tameem province in northern Iraq. He had been in a relationship with a young Sunni woman for one year. Since the woman’s brothers had not approved of him, they had kept their relationship secret. In June 2007, however, the woman’s brothers had caught them hugging and had attacked the applicant with scissors. During the attack, the woman had fled and he had not seen her since. The woman’s brothers had said that he had offended their honour and that it would only be restored if they killed him. The applicant had been hospitalised for one week and had initially been protected by the police. During that time, the woman’s brothers had burnt down his shop. They had also assaulted his father and had told him that they would cut the applicant to pieces. The applicant’s father had obeyed the brothers and had given them permission to kill the applicant if they found him. The applicant had reported the incident to the police. However, they had told him that they could not help him as it was an honour-related issue. He had then gone into hiding with relatives in another part of Kirkuk and had subsequently left Iraq in September 2007.
7.  On 13 November 2008 the Migration Board rejected the applicant’s request for asylum. It first observed that the general situation in Iraq was not a sufficient ground to grant the applicant’s request. Instead, an individual assessment had to be made. It further found the applicant’s story to be partly contradictory, given that he had stated that the police had been unable to protect him and, at the same time, had stated that the police in fact had protected him during the time he spent in hospital. The Board also found the applicant’s story to be vague, for example concerning the assault on his father. It further held that if the woman’s brothers had wanted to kill the applicant, they could have done so when they attacked him the first time. The Board stressed that the applicant had been able to stay in Iraq between June and September 2007, without anything happening to him. Lastly, it held that the applicant had failed to give an explanation as to why the woman’s brothers had not assaulted her but only the applicant. In sum, the Board did not find it credible that there was a threat from the brothers against the applicant.
8.  The applicant appealed to the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen) in Malmö where he maintained his story and added that the reason he had not been killed in the attack was that neighbours had intervened. The police protection in the hospital lasted only for a limited time. When it had become clear to the police that the case concerned honour-related issues, they had stated that they did not have the resources to protect him. The reason he had been able to stay in Kirkuk for several months was that he had been in hiding at his cousin’s home. Through a friend he had learnt that the woman had been killed and that her family had again assaulted his father. Internal relocation was not an alternative, as he did not have any social network outside his home province. Furthermore, the woman’s family could find him in other parts of the country.
9.  The Migration Board contested the applicant’s appeal, considering that he lacked credibility. It acknowledged that, if the Migration Court were to find the applicant’s story credible, he could not be expected to benefit from the authorities’ protection. However, in the Board’s view, internal flight alternatives were available to the applicant, such as the central parts of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in the north.
10.  On 4 September 2009 the Migration Court upheld the decision of the Board. First, the Court agreed with the Board’s assessment that the general situation in Iraq was not sufficient to justify granting the applicant’s request. Turning to the individual circumstances of the case, the court considered that the applicant’s story had been consistent and had not departed from what was generally known. The court further held that the applicant had given reasonable explanations for the inconsistencies highlighted in the Migration Board’s decision. Thus, the court held, the applicant had made probable that he had been in a relationship with the woman, that they had been caught hugging, that he had then been attacked with scissors, that his shop had later been burnt down and that his father had been beaten and told that the applicant would be harmed. It did, however, note that the applicant’s statements regarding the death of the woman and the further assault on the father were second-hand information of low evidential value. The court further stressed that two years had passed since the attack on the applicant and held that the interest from the woman’s family had probably diminished. The risk that the applicant would be subjected to revenge upon return to Kirkuk could, however, not be disregarded. The court further noted that the Migration Board had accepted that the applicant could not count on protection from the authorities. Thus, the applicant had made out that there was an individual threat against him which was local to Kirkuk and the surrounding area. There was, however, nothing to suggest that the applicant would not be safe in other provinces. The court held that an internal relocation alternative, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq being an example, was reasonable and relevant even if the applicant had no social network there.
11.  On 28 October 2009 the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrations-överdomstolen) refused leave to appeal.
12.  The applicant subsequently claimed that there were impediments to his deportation and requested that his application for a residence permit be examined anew. However, on 18 August 2010, the Migration Board refused to reconsider the case. It appears that the applicant did not appeal against this decision.